Bani Na'im (Arabic: بني نعيم‎, Banî Na‘îm) is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. Known as Brekke in the pre-Roman era, it was later referred to as "Caphar Barucha" in the 4th century. The town is best known as the burial place of Lot. Following the Muslim conquest, its name was Arabized as "Kafr al-Barik." The tomb of Lot was turned into a mosque during Islamic rule and remained so under Crusader rule. Later, the Arab tribe of "Bani Nu'aym" settled there, giving the town its current name "Bani Na'im," first used by Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690.

Bani Na'im grew in population during the British Mandate for Palestine. It joined the 1936–39 Arab revolt as the site of a battle between the irregular Palestinian Arab forces of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and the British Army. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Bani Na'im was annexed by Jordan. It came under Israeli occupation after Israel captured the West Bank during the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1997, Bani Na'im was transferred to Palestinian administration and consequently became a municipality. Today, it serves as a commercial center for Hebron area villages, although most government services are in Hebron. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007.[1] It is situated at a higher elevation than most localities in the area, with an altitude of 951 meters (3,120 ft).

Bani Na'im was known as "Brekke" in pre-Ancient Roman times.[2] Biblical scholar Edward Robinson identified the site with "Caphor Barucha" mentioned by Saint Jerome as the burial place of Lot in the 4th century CE. The modern town was built on the Roman Jewish village of "Kfar Brosha." Jerome wrote that Saint Paula, departing from Hebron, stopped upon the height of Caphar Barucha and looked upon the surrounding region, remembering Lot. According to tradition, Abraham observed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from that location.[3]

Following the Muslim conquest of Syria in the mid-7th century, the village was known as "Kafr Breik" or "Kafr al-Barik."[2]Ali of Herat passed through the village in 1173 CE, noting that it was near Hebron and the burial place of Lot.[4] Along with the town of Dura, Kafr al-Barik became a part of the waqf ("endowment") for the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron on orders from the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam Isa on May 2, 1215.[2] 15th-century Muslim geographer Imam al-Suyuti also acknowledged that Lot was buried in Kafr al-Barik and that in a cave west of the village, beneath an old mosque, laid "sixty prophets of whom twenty were Apostles." He noted that Lot's tomb was a site of "visitation and veneration from ancient times, the men of the age succeeding those who have gone before."[4]

In 1517 the town was annexed to the Ottoman Empire along with the rest of the Levant. Both the names Kafr Burayk and Nabi Na'im were indicated for the village in the Ottoman tax registers of 1596, where it was listed in the Nahiya of Khalil in the Liwa of Quds.[5] It had a population of 42 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, vineyards or fruit trees, grape syrup or molasses, and goats or beehives.[5]

The name "Bani Na'im" was used by Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690 during Ottoman rule. He wrote that the village had been known as "Kafr al-Barik" and "now it is known as Qaryat Bani Nu'aym in a diminutive form." It received this name from the Arab tribe of Bani Nu'aym, also referred to as Bani Na'im, who settled there after migrating from the vicinity of Petra in Transjordan.[6] Until the end of the 19th century, the early Arabic name was used by the residents and Western travelers.[2]

Robinson visited Bani Na'im in 1838, noting that it was probably the "very highest point in the hill country of Judea."[7] When the French traveler Victor Guérin visited in 1860, he found the village almost deserted since the population had left to live in tents as nomads to avoid military conscription.[8] He found them living in a tent village one kilometer away, ready to flee to the desert if an attempt was made to enlist them.[8] However, in 1874 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a good-sized village" bordered by olive groves to the south and west with many structures built out of ancient materials.[2][9] The residences there were mostly one-story stone cabins.[10] In their second visit in 1881 the SWP described Bani Na'im as well-cultivated with abundant flocks that grazed in desert areas east of the town.[11] The town was a major supplier of sand for the Hebron glass industry.[12] For much of the latter half of Ottoman rule, Bani Na'im was under the administration of the Mutasarif of Jerusalem.[13]

Bani Na'im grew considerably in population during the early 20th century.[2] In 1936, the town participated in the Arab revolt against the British authorities. In December 1937, British forces ordered the demolition of a house whose owners were accused of involvement in an anti-British incident near the town. They fined Bani Na'im's mukhtars (town chiefs) 50 British pounds and ordered the residents to carry 200 kilograms of explosives to the building for its demolition and watch the explosion as a deterrent measure.[14]

Palestinian Arab irregulars led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and his local commander, Abd al-Halim Jawlani, battled British Army forces in Bani Na'im in December 1938. According to British military accounts, a resident of Bani Na'im called for intervention when the rebels entered the town.[15]Israeli scholar Hillel Cohen wrote that Fakhri Nashashibi, a political rival of al-Husayni, informed military authorities on three rebel units forcing Bani Na'im's largely pro-Nashashibi inhabitants to join the revolt.[16] The British promptly confronted a force of 100 irregulars. With British Air Force assistance, al-Husayni's troops dispersed and fled east of Bani Na'im where they were pinned down. British forces killed 60 rebels and captured 15. One British soldier was killed.[15]

Bani Na'im houses the tomb of Lot, a prophet in Islam and a righteous person in Judaism and Christianity, in the center of the town.[21] The tomb is located within a rectangular-shaped mosque that contains an inner court and minaret. The lintel of the mosque's northern gate is built from stones dating to the Byzantine era when a church had possibly stood at the site. Lot's tomb was first mentioned by Saint Jerome, then by John of Wirtzburg in 1100, and Ali of Herat in 1173. While the Crusaders, who ruled the area from 1148 to 1187, were aware the tomb belonged to Lot, it remained a Muslim sanctuary unlike other Muslim edifices in Palestine which were converted to Christian use.[22] In 1322, writer Sir John Mandeville writes "two miles from Hebron, is the grave of Lot, Abraham's brother."[2]Ibn Battuta noted in 1326 that the tomb was covered by a "fine building" made of white stone and without columns.[22] Muslim writers al-Suyuti and Mujir ad-Din wrote in the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively, that Lot was buried in Bani Na'im.[2]Tawfiq Canaan, a researcher of Palestinian popular heritage, described the golden embroidered writing on the red silk cloth covering the tomb as reading, "This is the tomb of prophet Lut, peace be upon him."[23]

Islamic-era Kufic inscriptions on the front entrance to the mosque state that the Muslim scholar Abdullah bin Muhammad declared "the hills, the plains, the buildings, the paths, the gardens, the trees and the passage that transverses it [Bani Na'im]" are an endowment "for the prophet Lot, the son of Haran brother of Ibrahim (Abraham), the friend of the Compassionate (Allah), may the blessings of Allah be upon them ..."[24] According to Muslim tradition, Lot lived in Bani Na'im before moving to Sodom.[25] The shrine encasing the tomb was restored in 1410 by the Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Faraj, son of Sultan Barquq. The restoration work was entrusted by him to Shams al-Din al-Ansari, a member of the prominent Ansari family which specialized in religious endowments (waqf).[24]

The tomb of Lot's daughters are on an opposite hill nearby.[21] To the southeast of Bani Na'im is a separate shrine dedicated to Lot, known as Maqam an-Nabi Yatin ("Shrine of the Truthful Prophet.") Local legend claims Lot prayed at the site and imprints of his feet in a rock there are visible.[25] According to Muslim and Christian tradition, Bani Na'im is the place where Abraham, after the departure of the angels, saw the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah "rising as the smoke of a furnace."[21]

Bani Naim forms a generally rough rectangular layout, and widens in the northwest and southwest.[26] The town covers a mountainous area, with an average altitude of 958 meters (3,143 ft) above sea level. It is 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) to 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) southeast of Hebron, however the two localities have virtually merged with each other. The Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba is situated northwest of Bani Na'im, between it and Hebron. To its south lies the village of Hureiz and the town of Yatta, to the north are Sa'ir and ash-Shuyukh, while Halhul and the forest of Hebron lie to the west. Bani Na'im's lands extend east to the mountains that overlook the Dead Sea.[26]

Bani Na'im's total land area is about 157,000 dunams, but the town's built-up areas amount to roughly 2,500 dunams. The town itself is mostly located in Area A (Palestinian security and civilian administration) and Area B (Palestinian civil administration and Israeli military control.) The nearby town of ar-Rawa'in to the east is located within Bani Na'im's municipal jurisdiction and is under Area A. However, the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Hever which was established in 1982, has a population of 400 and is also located within the Bani Na'im's municipal borders, comes under full Israeli control.[27] Most of Bani Na'im's lands (59.6%) fall under "Area C," or full Israeli security and civilian administration.[28]

Average annual rainfall in Bani Na'im is 369 millimeters (14.5 in). The average temperature is 16 °C (61 °F) and the average annual humidity is 61%.[27]

An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Beni Na'im had 67 houses and a population of 145 inhabitants, though the population count included only men.[29][30] In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Bani Na'im had a population of 1,279 inhabitants, all Muslims,[31] rising to 1,646 Muslims, in 320 houses, according to the 1931 census.[32] By 1945, it increased to 2,160 according to an official land and population survey.[33][34] Under Jordanian rule, in 1952, the population surged to 5,778, partly due to large numbers of Palestinian refugees who settled in the town as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Later, the number of inhabitants declined due to the emigration of refugees from the town to other parts of the West Bank and Jordan. In 1961, the population of Bani Na'im was 3,392.[35] By 1967, there were 4,271 inhabitants in the town, gradually increasing to 6,703.[26] In 1987, the population rose to roughly 7,600 people.[36] In the 1997 census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Bani Na'im had 13,535 inhabitants of which 604 were refugees.[37] The gender distribution was 6,779 males and 6,756 females.[38]

In the 2007 census, there were 20,084 people living in the town and 217 in nearby Masaferet Bani Na'im which is located within the municipal jurisdiction. The gender makeup of Bani Na'im's population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. There were 3,490 housing units and the average household size consisted of 6.5 family members.[1] Bani Na'im's inhabitants accounted for 3.67% of the Hebron Governorate's population and the town is officially considered an urban area. The inhabitants are Muslims and 16 mosques are present throughout the town. The main families are al-Manasrah (the largest), Zeidan, Trayrah, Humeidat, Ubeid, Harahsheh and Amr.[27]

Bani Na'im was established as a village council in 1971. After most of the built-up areas of Bani Na'im were transferred to "Area A," giving the Palestinian National Authority full control of the town, a municipal council was established on May 20, 1997. The first council was formed from the old members of the previous village council. The council was made up of seven members, while there were 18 municipal employees.[27]

The amount of municipal seats was expanded to 13 during the Palestinian municipal elections in 2005.[27] A local group, the Bani Na'im Martyrs list, won the most seats: five. The Al-Aqsa list won three seats, Independent lists also won three and the Hamas-backed Reform and Change list won the remaining two seats. Gender-wise, females won two seats and males eleven. Issa Hassan al-Khdour, member of the Bani Na'im Martyrs, had the most votes (3,281), and thus became the head of the municipality.[39] In addition, the number of municipal employees increased to 30.[27]

The municipal borders of Bani Na'im extend beyond the town and include the following villages: Birin, ar-Rawa'in and Masaferet Bani Na'im. The latter is a grouping of the following hamlets: Mantiqat al-Ein, Mantiqat as-Sahel, Mantiqat Qaber K'heil, Mantiqat Hilmi, Mantiqat al-Hamra, Mantiqat al-Qurun, Mantiqat al-Mathbah, Mantiqat as-Sweidat, Mantiqat Um ar-Raqam and Khor 'Atara. Despite having a municipality, most official services are provided by the city of Hebron. However, Bani Na'im has a police station, a post office, and a local security office.[27]

Bani Na'im has 14 schools: 7 boys' schools, 5 girls' schools and 2 co-educational schools. The first school was established in 1929. Consisting of one classroom, the enrollment at the time did not exceed 20 female and male students and the highest grade level was the fourth grade.[26]

According to the 2007 census, 92.2% of the population was literate; most of the illiterate population was female. A total of 3,613 students were in elementary school, 3,601 in preparatory school, and 1,862 in high school. 958 people had college diplomas; 49 had academic degrees higher than a BA.[27]

Most of Bani Na'im's health facilities are privately owned. The town has a maternity hospital, five health clinics, three dental clinics and a physiotherapy center. The Palestinian Ministry of Health runs a childcare center and medical lab in the town, while an additional health center and an x-ray center are run by a charitable society. In addition, there are five pharmacies in Bani Na'im. In 2009, the town had one ambulance. Residents travel to Hebron for emergency treatment.[27]

Bani Na'im serves as a commercial center in the Hebron area. Approximately 50% of the labor force is engaged in the industrial and civil service sector. About 20% are employed in the Israeli labor market while 19% work in agriculture. Economic enterprises include four stone-cutting factories, a brick factory, a textile factory, an olive press, eleven metal workshops, four carpentry workshops, seven butcher shops, 13 clothing stores, and 110 other shops.[27]

Decline in market demand combined with movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli military have led to a deterioration of the local economy, particularly in the trade and the stone-cutting industries. In 2007, unemployment reached 30%. Consequently, many unemployed persons began looking into agriculture to earn income. The most cultivated crops are grains, especially barley, followed by lentils and chick peas. A sizable segment of the population raise livestock and 10% breed their own domestic animals. In total, there are 144 cows, 7,000 goats, 14,000 sheep, and 500 beehives.[27] Much of the town's agricultural products are sold in Hebron.[26][27]

There are 4,244 buildings in Bani Na'im, of which 3,452 are houses and 213 are working establishments.[1] Pipe water reaches more than 95% of the residents. The water pipe line, 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) in length, is linked to the main water supply of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, south of Bethlehem. Around 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) of main and sub lines were recently repaired. The cost of this project was roughly one million NIS.[27]

In 1994, Bani Na'im was linked to the electricity grid and the municipality installed street lights. Before then, generators operated for five hours daily at most and for house use only.[26]

1.
State of Palestine
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The State of Palestine claims the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the designated capital. Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and its independence was declared on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization in Algiers as a government-in-exile. Since the British Mandate, the term Palestine has been associated with the area that currently covers the State of Israel, the West Bank. In 1947, the UN adopted a plan for a two-state solution in the remaining territory of the mandate. The plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arab leaders, on the eve of final British withdrawal, the Jewish Agency for Israel declared the establishment of the State of Israel according to the proposed UN plan. During the war, Israel gained additional territories that were designated to be part of the Arab state under the UN plan, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Transjordan occupied the West Bank. Egypt initially supported the creation of an All-Palestine Government, but disbanded it in 1959, Transjordan never recognized it and instead decided to incorporate the West Bank with its own territory to form Jordan. The annexation was ratified in 1950 but was rejected by the international community, the Six-Day War in 1967, when Egypt, Jordan, and Syria fought against Israel, ended with Israel being in occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, besides other territories. In 1964, when the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, the Palestinian National Charter of the PLO defines the boundaries of Palestine as the whole remaining territory of the mandate, including Israel. Following the Six-Day War, the PLO moved to Jordan, the October 1974 Arab League summit designated the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and reaffirmed their right to establish an independent state of urgency. In November 1974, the PLO was recognized as competent on all matters concerning the question of Palestine by the UN General Assembly granting them observer status as an entity at the UN. In spite of this decision, the PLO did not participate at the UN in its capacity of the State of Palestines government, in 1979, through the Camp David Accords, Egypt signaled an end to any claim of its own over the Gaza Strip. In July 1988, Jordan ceded its claims to the West Bank—with the exception of guardianship over Haram al-Sharif—to the PLO, in November 1988, the PLO legislature, while in exile, declared the establishment of the State of Palestine. In the month following, it was recognised by many states, including Egypt. In the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, the State of Palestine is described as being established on the Palestinian territory, the UN membership application submitted by the State of Palestine also specified that it is based on the 1967 borders. During the negotiations of the Oslo Accords, the PLO recognised Israels right to exist, after Israel took control of the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza Strip from Egypt, it began to establish Israeli settlements there. These were organised into Judea and Samaria district and Hof Aza Regional Council in the Southern District, in 1980, Israel decided to freeze elections for these councils and to establish instead Village Leagues, whose officials were under Israeli influence. Later this model became ineffective for both Israel and the Palestinians, and the Village Leagues began to break up, with the last being the Hebron League, dissolved in February 1988

2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

3.
Palestine grid
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The Palestine grid was the geographic coordinate system used in Mandatory Palestine. The system was chosen by the Survey Department of the Government of Palestine in 1922, the projection used was the Cassini-Soldner projection. The central meridian was chosen as that passing through a marker on the hill of Mar Elias Monastery south of Jerusalem, the false origin of the grid was placed 100 km to the south and west of the Ali el-Muntar hill that overlooks Gaza city. The unit length for the grid was the kilometre, the British units were not even considered, at the time the grid was established, there was no intention of mapping the lower reaches of the Negev Desert, but this did not remain true. The fact that those regions would have negative north-south coordinate then became a source of confusion. For some military purposes,1000 was added to the coordinates of all locations. During World War II, a Military Palestine Grid was used that was similar to the Palestine Grid, the difference between the two projections was only a few meters. It was replaced by the Israeli Transverse Mercator grid in 1994, the Palestine grid is still commonly used to specify locations in the historical and archaeological literature. The basic way of specifying a location on the Palestine grid is to write the east-west coordinate followed by the north-south coordinate using 3 digits each, for example, the Dome of the Rock is at 172132. This specifies the location within one kilometer, if more precision is required, extra digits can be added to each coordinate, for example,17241317 gives the Dome of the Rock to within 100 meters. Many authors separate the two coordinates with punctuation for readability purposes, for example 172-132 or 172/132

4.
Hebron Governorate
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The Hebron Governorate is an administrative district of the Palestine in the southern West Bank. The governorates land area is 1,060 square kilometers and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-year 2010 was 600,364 and this makes the Hebron Governorate the largest of 16 governorates in both population and land area in the Palestinian territories. The city of Hebron is the capital or muhfaza of the governorate. The governor is Hussein al-Araj and its commander is Abdel Fattah al-Ju’eidi. The Hebron Governorate has a total of seven cities and eighteen towns, the governorate also contains more than 100 Bedouin villages and settlements that are not listed below. Dura Halhul Hebron Yatta ad-Dhahiriya The following localities have municipality status from the Ministry of Local Government of the Palestinian National Authority, the following have populations over 1,000 persons. Al-Arroub al-Fawwar Governorates of Palestine Hebron Governorate Statistical Yearbook No.3

5.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested

6.
Palestinians
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Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the worlds Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars. Palestinian was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I, Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period. Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before the international community. Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the Syrians of Palestine or Palestinian-Syrians, an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians. Herodotus makes no distinction between the Jews and other inhabitants of Palestine, the Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word which was used either as a toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati has been conjectured to refer to the Sea Peoples, among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu is used of Philistia and its 4 city states. Biblical Hebrews cognate word Plištim, is usually translated Philistines, the Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers. It appears to have used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE. The Arabic newspaper Falasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, the first Zionist bank, the Jewish Colonial Trust, was founded at the Second Zionist Congress and incorporated in London in 1899. The JCT was intended to be the instrument of the Zionist Organization. On 27 February 1902, a subsidiary of this Trust called the Anglo-Palestine Company was established in London with the assistance of Zalman David Levontin and this Company was to become the future Bank Leumi. Following the 1948 establishment of Israel, the use and application of the terms Palestine and Palestinian by, for example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. Jews in Israel and the West Bank today generally identify as Israelis, Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Israeli and/or Palestinian and/or Arab. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father – whether in Palestine or outside it – is also a Palestinian. Thus, the Jews of Palestine were/are also included, although limited only to the Jews who had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion. The Charter also states that Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is a territorial unit. The although the timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement

7.
West Bank
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The West Bank shares boundaries to the west, north, and south with Israel, and to the east, across the Jordan River, with Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant section of the western Dead Sea shore, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land area of 5,640 km2 plus a water area of 220 km2, consisting of the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea. As of July 2015 it has an population of 2,785,366 Palestinians, and approximately 371,000 Israeli settlers. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law and this annexation was recognized only by Britain, Iraq and Pakistan. The term was chosen to differentiate the west bank of the River Jordan from the east bank of this river, the neo-Latin name Cisjordan or Cis-Jordan is the usual name for the territory in the Romance languages and Hungarian. The name West Bank, however, has become the standard usage for this entity in English. The analogous Transjordan has historically used to designate the region now roughly comprising the state of Jordan. From 1517 through 1917, the now known as the West Bank was under Ottoman rule as part of the provinces of Syria. At the 1920 San Remo conference, the victorious Allied powers allocated the area to the British Mandate of Palestine, the San Remo Resolution adopted on 25 April 1920 incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It and Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations were the basic documents upon which the British Mandate for Palestine was constructed. Faced with the determination of Emir Abdullah to unify Arab lands under the Hashemite banner, the West Bank area, was conquered by Jordan during the 1948 war with the new state of Israel. In 1947, it was designated as part of a proposed Arab state by the United Nations partition plan for Palestine. 1949 Armistice Agreements defined the boundary between Israel and Jordan. In 1950, Transjordan annexed the area west of the Jordan River, naming it West Bank or Cisjordan, Jordan ruled over the West Bank from 1948 until 1967. Jordans annexation was never recognized by the international community, with the exception of the United Kingdom. King Abdullah of Jordan had been crowned King of Jerusalem by the Coptic Bishop on 15 November 1948. and granted Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, in June 1967, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured by Israel as a result of the Six-Day War. With the exception of East Jerusalem and the former Israeli-Jordanian no mans land, the Israeli settlements were, on the other hand, administered subsequently as Judea and Samaria Area directly by Israel. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority officially controls a geographically non-contiguous territory comprising approx, 11% of the West Bank which remains subject to Israeli incursions

8.
Hebron
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Hebron is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank,30 km south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level, the city is divided into two sectors, H1, controlled by the Palestinian Authority and H2, roughly 20% of the city, administered by Israel. All security arrangements and travel permits for local residents are coordinated between the Palestinian Authority and Israel via military administration of the West Bank, the settlers are governed by their own municipal body, the Committee of the Jewish Community of Hebron. In Judaism it is considered the second-holiest city after Jerusalem, while Islam regards it as one of the four holy cities. Hebron is a hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly a third of the areas gross domestic product. It is locally known for its grapes, figs, limestone, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories. The old city of Hebron is characterized by narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, the city is home to Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University. Hebron is attached to cities of ad-Dhahiriya, Dura, Yatta, Hebron Governorate is the largest Palestinian governorate with its population of 600,364. The name Hebron traces back to two Semitic roots, which coalesce in the form ḥbr, having reflexes in Hebrew and Amorite and denoting a range of meanings from colleague, in the proper name Hebron, the original sense may have been alliance. The Arabic term derives from the Quranic epithet for Abraham, Khalil al-Rahman Beloved of the Merciful or Friend of God, Arabic Al-Khalil thus precisely translates the ancient Hebrew toponym Ḥebron, understood as ḥaber. Archaeological excavations reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age, the city flourished in the 17th–18th centuries BCE before being destroyed by fire, and was resettled in the late Middle Bronze Age. This older Hebron was originally a Canaanite royal city, abrahamic legend associates the city with the Hittites. In Biblical lore they are represented as descendants of the Nephilim, in settling here, Abraham is described as making his first covenant, an alliance with two local Amorite clans who became his ba’alei brit or masters of the covenant. The Hebron of the Bible was centered on what is now known as Tel Rumeida, Later, the biblical narrative has King David reign from Hebron for some seven years. It is there that the elders of Israel come to him to make a covenant before Elohim and it was in Hebron again that Absalom has himself declared king and then raises a revolt against his father David. It became one of the centers of the Tribe of Judah and was classified as one of the six traditional Cities of Refuge. It remained administratively and politically dependent on Jerusalem for this period, Jews also appear to have lived there after the return from the Babylonian exile. During the Maccabean revolt, Hebron was burnt and plundered by Judah Maccabee who fought against the Edomites in 167 BCE, the city appears to have long resisted Hasmonean dominance, however, and indeed as late as the First Jewish–Roman War was still considered Idumean

9.
Lot (biblical person)
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Lot was a patriarch in the biblical Book of Genesis chapters 11–14 and 19. Lot and his father Haran were born and raised in Ur of the Chaldees in the region of Sumeria on the Euphrates River of lower Mesopotamia, Haran died in that land before his father Terah. Genesis 11, 26-32 gives the generations of Terah, Lots grandfather, among the family members that Lot travelled with was his uncle Abram, one of the three patriarchs of Israel. En route to Canaan, the family stopped in the Paddan Aram region and they settled at the site called Haran where Lots grandfather, Terah, lived the rest of his days. He was 205 years old when he died, Genesis 12 reveals Abrams obedience to the LORD at the age of 75, in continuing his journey to the land of promise. Though Abrams father, Terah, stayed behind, his nephew Lot went with him, there is no mention of Lot having a wife yet. They went southwestward into the land of Canaan, to the place of Sichem, later they travelled south to the hills between Bethel and Hai, before journeying further toward the south of Canaan. After dwelling in the land of Canaan for a little while, there was a famine, after having dwelt in Egypt for some time, they acquired vast amounts of wealth and livestock, and returned to the Bethel area. Genesis 13 helps and discusses Abram and Lots return to Canaan after the famine had passed and they traveled back through the Negev to the hills of Bethel. With their sizeable numbers of livestock and always on the move, the conflicts between herdsmen had become so troublesome that Abram recommended to Lot that they should part ways, lest there be conflict amongst brethren. Abram then headed south to Hebron, staying within the land of Canaan, Lot had encamped on the green Jordan plain among the cities of the plain and initially pitched his tent toward Sodom. The following year the four armies with Chedorlaomer returned and at the Battle of the Vale of Siddim, Chedorlaomer spoiled the cities and took captives as he departed, including Lot, who by then dwelt in Sodom. He divided his forces and attacked at night more than one direction. The pursuit continued and the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and the kings was completed at Hobah north of Damascus. Abram brought back his brother Lot and all the people and their goods, twenty four years after Abram and Lot began their sojourning, the LORD changed Abrams name to Abraham, and gave him the covenant of circumcision. Not long afterward, the LORD appeared to Abraham, for three men came to visit and have a meal with him, and after two left to go to Sodom, Abraham stood yet before the LORD. Abraham boldly pleaded on behalf of the people of Sodom, where Lot dwelt and he continued inquiring, reducing the number to forty five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally if there were ten righteous in the city, it would be spared. After supper that night before bedtime, the men of the city, young and old and his response infuriated the men of Sodom who accused him of being judgmental and they threatened to do worse to him than they would have done to the men

10.
Muslim conquest of the Levant
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During the Roman period, beginning after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, the entire region was renamed Palaestina, subdivided into Diocese I and II. The Romans also renamed an area of land including the Negev, Sinai, part of the area was ruled by the Arab vassal state of the Ghassanids symmachos. Thus, on the eve of the Muslim conquests the Romans were still in the process of rebuilding their authority in these territories, politically, the Syrian region consisted of two provinces, Syria proper stretched from Antioch and Aleppo in the north to the top of the Dead Sea. To the west and south of the Dead Sea lay the province of Palestine, Syria was mostly a Syriac and Hellenized land with some Jewish presence and with a partly Arab population, especially in its eastern and southern parts. The Ghassan Dynasty became one of the princely dynasties of the Empire, with the Ghassan king ruling over the Arabs in Jordan. The last of the Ghassan kings, who ruled at the time of the Muslim invasion, was Jabla bin Al Aiham, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, after re-capturing Syria from the Sassanians, set up new defense lines from Gaza to the south end of the Dead Sea. These lines were designed to protect communications from bandits, and the bulk of the Byzantine defenses were concentrated in Northern Syria facing the traditional foes. This defense line had as a drawback that it enabled the Muslims, the 7th century was a time of fast military changes in the Byzantine Empire. Muhammad died in June 632, and Abu Bakr was appointed Caliph, soon after Abu Bakrs succession, several Arab tribes revolted against him in the Ridda wars. The Campaign of the Apostasy was fought and completed during the year of the Hijri. The year 12 Hijri dawned, on 18 March 633, with Arabia united under the authority of the Caliph at Medina. After successful campaigns against the Sassanids and the ensuing conquest of Iraq Khalid established his stronghold in Iraq, while engaged with Sassanid forces, confrontation also ensued with the Byzantine Arab clients, the Ghassanids. Tribal contingents were recruited to the call from Medinah from all over the Arabian peninsula. The tradition of raising armies from tribal contingents remained in use until 636, Abu Bakr organised the army into four corps, each with its own commander and objective. Move on Elat route, then across Valley of Arabah, Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan, Objective Damascus. Move on Tabuk route after Yazid, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, Objective Emesa. Move on Tabuk route after Shurahbil, in case the corps had to concentrate for one major battle, Abu Ubaidah was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the entire army. In the first week of April 634, the Muslim forces began to move from their camps outside Medina, the first to leave was Yazids corps, followed by Shurahbil, Abu Ubaidah and Amr, each a days march from the other

11.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion

12.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned

13.
Tribes of Arabia
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The tribes of Arabia are the clans that originated in the Arabian Peninsula. Much of the lineage provided before Maad relies on biblical genealogy, the general consensus among 14th century Arabic genealogists is that Arabs are of three kinds, Perishing Arabs are ancient tribes of whose history little is known. They include ‘Aad, Thamud, Tasm, Jadis, Imlaq, Jadis and Tasm perished because of genocide. Aad and Thamud perished because of their decadence, as recorded in the Quran, archaeologists have recently uncovered inscriptions that contain references to Iram, which was a major city of the Aad. Imlaq is the form of Amaleeq and is probably synonymous to the biblical Amalek. According to tradition, Pure Arabs were from Yemen and were descendants of Ya‘rub bin Yashjub bin Qahtan who may have either descended from Ishmael or from Eber. They were also called Qahtanite Arabs, according to tradition, Arabized Arabs originated from the progeny of Ishmael the first born son of the patriarch Abraham and the Jurhum tribe, also called ‘Adnani Arabs. According to modern historians, the distinction between Adnanites and Qahtanites lacks evidence and may have developed out of the later faction-fighting during the Umayyad period. Below is a partial list of the tribes of Arabia, The dwelling places and wanderings of the Arabian tribes, by Heinrich Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, in German Arab tribes in Iraq Arabs of Khuzestan

14.
Mandatory Palestine
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Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948, further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. At the wars end the British and French set up a joint Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in what had been Ottoman Syria, the British achieved legitimacy for their continued control by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. The civil Mandate administration was formalized with the League of Nations consent in 1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine, the land west of the Jordan River, known as Palestine, was under direct British administration until 1948. The land east of the Jordan, a region known as Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from the Hijaz. The divergent tendencies regarding the nature and purpose of the mandate are visible already in the discussions concerning the name for this new entity. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called Southern Syria in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State. During the British Mandate period the area experienced the ascent of two major nationalist movements, one among the Jews and the other among the Arabs, following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine was governed by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. In July 1920, the administration was replaced by a civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner. The first High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, a Zionist recent cabinet minister, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920, following the arrival of the British, Muslim-Christian Associations were established in all the major towns. In 1919 they joined to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem and its main platforms were a call for representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist Commission was formed in March 1918 and was active in promoting Zionist objectives in Palestine, on 19 April 1920, elections were held for the Assembly of Representatives of the Palestinian Jewish community. The Zionist Commission received official recognition in 1922 as representative of the Palestinian Jewish community, Rutenberg soon established an electric company whose shareholders were Zionist organizations, investors, and philanthropists. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favor Zionism, when Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Kamil al-Husayni died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother Mohammad Amin al-Husseini to the position. Amin al-Husseini, a member of the clan of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist. As Grand Mufti, as well as the influential positions that he held during this period. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had created by Samuel in December 1921. The Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, in addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine

15.
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
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Husayni was born to the influential al-Husayni family of Jerusalem, son of Musa al-Husayni and the nephew of Amin al-Husayni. He graduated in chemistry at the American University in Cairo, a member of the Palestine Arab Party, he served as its secretary-general and became editor-in-chief of the partys paper Al-Liwa’ and other newspapers, including Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiyya. In 1938, Husayni was exiled and in 1939 fled to Iraq where he took part in the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani coup and he moved to Egypt in 1946, but secretly returned to Palestine to lead the Army of the Holy War in January 1948. Husayni was killed while personally reconnoitring an area of Qastal Hill shrouded by fog and his forces later captured al-Qastal from the Haganah, which had occupied the village at the start of Operation Nachshon six days earlier with a force of about 100 men. They retreated to the Jewish settlement of Motza, palmach troops recaptured the village on the night of 8–9 April, losing 18 men in the attack, most of the houses were blown up and the hill became a command post. Huseynis death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces, ben Yehuda Street Bombing Benveniśtî, Mêrôn. Sacred Landscape, The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine, 1945-1948. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, building a Palestinian State, The Incomplete Revolution. Armed Struggle and the Search for State, The Palestinian National Movement, the role of the Palestinian peasantry in the Great Revolt

16.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany

17.
Jordanian annexation of the West Bank
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Jordanian annexation of the West Bank refers to the occupation and consequent annexation of the West Bank by Jordan in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. At the end of hostilities, Jordan was in control of the West Bank. Following the December 1948 Jericho Conference, and the 1949 renaming of the country from Transjordan to Jordan and it was recognized by the United Kingdom, Iraq and Pakistan. Jordan transferred its citizenship to the residents of the West Bank, prior to hostilities in 1948, all of the country known as Palestine had been under the British-controlled Mandate Government of Palestine, since 1917. Prior to that time, the country had been under Ottoman Turk occupation since 1517, toward the expiration of the British Mandate, Arabs aspired for independence and self-determination, as did the Jews of the country. On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, on behalf of the Jewish leadership, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, on 22 September 1948, the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza captured by Egypt. On 30 September, the First Palestine Congress, which saw Palestine as part of Syria, the December 1948 Jericho Conference, a meeting of prominent Palestinian leaders and King Abdullah, voted in favor of annexation into what was then Transjordan. By the end of the war, Jordanian forces had control over the West Bank, on 3 April 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an armistice agreement. The main points included, Jordanian forces remained in most positions held in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Jordan withdrew its forces from its front posts overlooking the Sharon plain, in return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation, the remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt, partly occupied and annexed by Israel. The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, the Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables, many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The United States, together with the United Kingdom favored the annexation by Transjordan, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank on 24 April 1950, giving all residents automatic Jordanian citizenship. West Bank residents had received the right to claim Jordanian citizenship in December 1949. Jordans annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League. A motion to expel Jordan from the League was prevented by the votes of Yemen. On 12 June 1950, the Arab League declared the annexation was a temporary, practical measure, on 27 July 1953, King Hussein of Jordan announced that East Jerusalem was the alternative capital of the Hashemite Kingdom and would form an integral and inseparable part of Jordan

18.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam

19.
Six-Day War
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The Six-Day War, also known as the June War,1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10,1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Relations between Israel and its neighbours had never fully normalised following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the period leading up to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened. In reaction to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces along the Israeli border in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli losses, giving the Israelis air superiority. Simultaneously, the Israelis launched an offensive into the Gaza Strip and the Sinai. After some initial resistance, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the evacuation of the Sinai, Israeli forces rushed westward in pursuit of the Egyptians, inflicted heavy losses, and conquered the Sinai. Nasser induced Syria and Jordan to begin attacks on Israel by using the initially confused situation to claim that Egypt had defeated the Israeli air strike. Israeli counterattacks resulted in the seizure of East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank from the Jordanians, on June 11, a ceasefire was signed. Arab casualties were far heavier than those of Israel, fewer than a thousand Israelis had been killed compared to over 20,000 from the Arab forces. Israels military success was attributed to the element of surprise, an innovative and well-executed battle plan, Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israeli morale and international prestige was greatly increased by the outcome of the war, across the Arab world, Jewish minority communities were expelled, with refugees going to Israel or Europe. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt agreed to the stationing of a United Nations Emergency Force in the Sinai to ensure all parties would comply with the 1949 Armistice Agreements, in the following years there were numerous minor border clashes between Israel and its Arab neighbors, particularly Syria. In early November 1966, Syria signed a defense agreement with Egypt. Jordanian units that engaged the Israelis were quickly beaten back, King Hussein of Jordan criticized Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser for failing to come to Jordans aid, and hiding behind UNEF skirts. In May 1967, Nasser received false reports from the Soviet Union that Israel was massing on the Syrian border, the right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations. On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a defense pact, the following day, at Jordans invitation, the Iraqi army began deploying troops and armoured units in Jordan. They were later reinforced by an Egyptian contingent, on June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government by widening its cabinet, and on June 4 the decision was made to go to war. The next morning, Israel launched Operation Focus, a surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War. Before the war, Israeli pilots and ground crews had trained extensively in rapid refitting of aircraft returning from sorties and this has contributed to the Arab belief that the IAF was helped by foreign air forces

20.
Municipality
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It is to be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory and/or numerous small communities such as towns, villages and hamlets. The term municipality may also mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality, a municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis, a municipality can be any political jurisdiction from a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, or a small village, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York. The power of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state, municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. Similar terms include Spanish ayuntamiento, also called municipalidad, Polish gmina, Dutch/Flemish Gemeente, in Australia, the term local government area is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia, incorporated areas are legally designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation, the Province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower, upper, and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include counties and regional municipalities, nova Scotia also has regional municipalities, which include cities, counties, districts, or towns as municipal units. In India, a Nagar Palika or Municipality is a local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. Under the Panchayati Raj system, it directly with the state government. Generally, smaller cities and bigger towns have a Nagar Palika. Nagar Palikas are also a form of local self-government entrusted with duties and responsibilities. Such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, and in Scotland as a council area. A district may be awarded borough or city status, or can retain its district title, in Jersey, a municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each of the 12 parishes into which it is subdivided. This is the highest level of government in this jurisdiction. In the United States, municipality is usually understood as a city, town, village, or other local government unit, in the Peoples Republic of China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. In Taiwan, a municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei. In Portuguese language usage, there are two words to distinguish the territory and the administrative organ, when referring to the territory, the word concelho is used, when referring to the organ of State, the word município is used

21.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid

22.
Edward Robinson (scholar)
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Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar. He studied in the United States and Germany, a center of biblical scholarship and he translated scriptural works from classical languages, as well as German translations. His Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament became an authority in the United States. Robinson was born in Southington, Connecticut, and raised on a farm and his father was a minister in the Congregational Church of the town for four decades. The younger Robinson taught at schools in East Haven and Farmington in 1810-11 to earn money for college and he attended Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York, where his maternal uncle, Seth Norton, was a professor. In 1821 he went to Andover, Massachusetts, where he published his translation of books i-ix, xviii, there he aided Moses Stuart in the preparation of the second edition of the latters Hebrew Grammar. He translated into English Wahls Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti, Robinson went to Europe to study ancient languages, largely in Halle and Berlin. While in Halle, in 1828 he married the German writer Therese Albertine Luise, after the couple returned to the United States, Robinson was appointed professor extraordinary of sacred literature at Andover Theological Seminary. Robinson founded the Biblical Repository, which he edited for four years and he also established the Bibliotheca Sacra, into which was merged the Biblical Repository. He spent three years in Boston working on a lexicon of scriptural Greek, illness caused him to move to New York City. He was appointed as professor of literature at Union Theological Seminary. In 1836 Robinson published both a translation of Wilhelm Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon and a Greek New Testament Lexicon, Robinson traveled to Palestine in 1838 in the company of Rev. He published Biblical Researches in Palestine in 1841, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1842 and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1847. Robinson, together with Smith, made scores of identifications of ancient places referred to the Bible and his work established his enduring reputation as a Founder of Biblical archeology, and influenced much of future archaeological field work. Examples of his finds in Jerusalem include the Siloam tunnel and Robinsons Arch in the Old City, the two men returned to Ottoman Palestine in 1852 for further investigations. In 1856 the enlarged edition of Biblical Researches was published simultaneously in English and this work superseded his translation of Wahls work, becoming a standard authority in the United States. It was several times reprinted in Great Britain, physical Geography of the Holy Land. This is a supplement to his Biblical Researches, and was edited by Mrs. Robinson after his death, revised editions of the Greek and English Harmonies, edited by Matthew B

23.
Jerome
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Jerome was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia and he is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin, and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive, the protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and this focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families. He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and his feast day is 30 September. Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347 A. D and he was of Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect. He was not baptized until about 360–366 A. D. when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies and he studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek, though not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a schoolboy. As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial escapades and wanton behaviour of students there, to appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Jerome used a quote from Virgil—On all sides round horror spread wide, although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once, during one of these illnesses, he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. Seized with a desire for a life of penance, he went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid. During this period, he seems to have time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew, Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly, soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the three he was in Rome again, as secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians

24.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor

25.
Saint Paula
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Saint Paula of Rome, was an ancient Roman saint and early Desert Mother. A member of one of the richest senatorial families which claimed descent from Agamemnon, Paula was the daughter of Blesilla and Rogatus, from the great clan of the Furii Camilli. In her mid teens, Paula was married to the nobleman Toxotius, with whom she had four daughters, Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium and she also had a boy, also named Toxotius. Information about Paulas early life is recorded by Saint Jerome, in his Letter 108, he states that she had led a luxurious life and held a great status. She dressed in silks, and had carried about the city by her eunuch slaves. At the age of 32, Paula was widowed and she continued to dedicate herself to her family, but became more interested in religion as time went on. Through the influence of Saint Marcella and her group, Paula became a member of this semi-monastic group of women. In 382, she met Saint Jerome, who had come to Rome with Saint Epiphanius, born in Dalmatia, Jerome had studied in Rome as a youth and had traveled to Germany and Aquileia, and for some years had lived in the East as an ascetic and scholar. While on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt, she settled in Bethlehem and established a monastery for men, Paula married her daughter, Paulina, to the senator Saint Pammachius, Blesilla soon became a widow and died in 384. Of her two daughters, Rufina died in 386, and Eustochium accompanied her mother to the Orient where she died in 419. Her son, Toxotius, at first not a Christian, but baptized in 385, married in 389 Laeta, of this marriage was born Paula the Younger, who in 404 rejoined Eustochium in the Holy Land and in 420 closed the eyes of St. Jerome. These are the names which recur frequently in the letters of St. Jerome and it has been argued that Saint Eustochius of Tours was the brother of Paula the Younger and the son of Toxotius. Jeromes enemies found that his denunciations of clerical indulgence and advocacy of self-denial were odd when they considered his relationship with Paula. An amorous relationship between Jerome and Paula was suggested as having occurred, Paula helped Jerome in his translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. The work was done at her suggestion, and she provided the works necessary for the undertaking. Being versed in Hebrew, she edited Jeromes manuscripts and she and her daughter Eustochium copied the work for circulation. An anecdote told of Jerome, of origin, tells that Roman clergy hostile to Jerome planned to have him expelled from the city by planting a womans robe next to his bed. When Jerome awoke in the middle of the night to attend the service of matins and he was thus accused of having had a woman in his bed

26.
Abraham
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Abraham, originally Abram, is the first of the three patriarchs of Judaism. His story features in the texts of all the Abrahamic religions and Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity. The biblical narrative revolves around the themes of posterity and land, Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan, but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham, Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons, but on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives all Abrahams goods, while the other sons receive only gifts. Terah, the ninth in descent from Noah, was the father of three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, Haran was the father of Lot, and died in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram married Sarah, who was barren, Terah, with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, then departed for Canaan, but settled in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the substance and souls that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. There was a famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households. On the way Abram told his wife Sarai to say that she was his sister, however, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues, for which he tried to find the reason. Upon discovering that Sarai was a woman, Pharaoh demanded that they and their household leave immediately. When they came back to the Bethel and Hai area, Abrams and this became a problem for the herdsmen who were assigned to each familys cattle. But Lot chose to go east to the plain of Jordan where the land was well watered everywhere as far as Zoar, Abram went south to Hebron and settled in the plain of Mamre, where he built another altar to worship God. During the rebellion of the Jordan River cities against Elam, Abrams nephew, the Elamite army came to collect the spoils of war, after having just defeated the king of Sodoms armies. Lot and his family, at the time, were settled on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sodom which made them a visible target, one person who escaped capture came and told Abram what happened. Once Abram received this news, he immediately assembled 318 trained servants, Abrams force headed north in pursuit of the Elamite army, who were already worn down from the Battle of Siddim. When they caught up with them at Dan, Abram devised a plan by splitting his group into more than one unit. Not only were able to free the captives, Abrams unit chased and slaughtered the Elamite King Chedorlaomer at Hobah. They freed Lot, as well as his household and possessions, upon Abrams return, Sodoms king came out to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh, the kings dale

27.
Sodom and Gomorrah
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Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and in the deuterocanonical books, as well as in the Quran and the hadith. According to the Torah, the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah were allied with the cities of Admah, Zeboim and these five cities, also known as the cities of the plain, were situated on the Jordan River plain in the southern region of the land of Canaan. The plain, which corresponds to the area just north of the modern-day Dead Sea, was compared to the garden of Eden as being well-watered and green, suitable for grazing livestock. Divine judgment by God was then passed upon Sodom and Gomorrah, neighboring Zoar was the only city to be spared. In Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah have become synonymous with impenitent sin, Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for vice and homosexuality viewed as a deviation. The story has given rise to words in several languages. These include the English word sodomy, used in laws to describe sexual crimes against nature, namely anal or oral sex. Some Islamic societies incorporate punishments associated with Sodom and Gomorrah into sharia, the etymology of both names is uncertain. The exact original meanings of the names are also uncertain, of the five cities of the plain, only Bela, modern Zoara, is securely identified, and remained a settlement long after the biblical period. The ancient Greek historiographer Strabo states that locals living near Moasada say that there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis. Strabo identifies a limestone and salt hill at the western tip of the Dead Sea. However, Sayce later mentions that the more closely resembles the doom of Sennacheribs host. The names si-da-mu and ì-ma-ar were identified as representing Sodom and Gomorrah, today, the scholarly consensus is that Ebla has no bearing on. If the cities existed, they might have been destroyed as the result of a natural disaster. One theory says that the Dead Sea was devastated by an earthquake between 2100 and 1900 BCE, which could have unleashed showers of steaming tar. It is possible that the towns were destroyed by an earthquake in the region, especially if the towns lay along a major fault, However, there is a lack of contemporary accounts of seismic activity within the necessary timeframe to corroborate this theory. Other possibilities also include Numeira, al-Safi, Feifa, and Khanazir, all sites were near the Dead Sea, with evidence of burning and traces of sulfur. However, according to Schaub, who dug at Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira was destroyed at a different time period from Bab edh-Dhra, Archaeological remains excavated from Bab edh-Dhra are currently displayed in Karak Archaeological Museum, Amman Citadel Museum, and the British Museum

28.
Dura, Hebron
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Dura is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 28,268 in 2007, the current mayor is Sameer Al-Namoura. Some believe Noah, the tenth of the pre-flood Patriarchs, as the story of Noahs Ark is told in the Hebrew Bible, is buried in Dura. The city was fortified by Rehoboam, King of the United Monarchy of Israel and later the King of the Kingdom of Judah, who was a son of Solomon, the city was called Adora in the First Book of Maccabees. In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Syria, after the British Mandate, in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Dura was occupied by Jordan and came under Jordanian rule. Dura was established as a municipality on January 1,1967, according to the municipality, the name Dura is derived from a Canaanite word meaning house and not the Arabic word for corn. Its ancient Canaanite name is Adoraim, according to the Bible,2 Chron. The city was fortified by Rehoboam, the city was called Macabees Adora Dura is an ancient place, where old cisterns and fragments of mosaics have been found. The town was referred to as Adora during the classical period and it may have been the administrative center of the district of eastern Idumaea established by the Roman consul Aulus Gabinius in the 6th century BCE, though other possibilities have been suggested. Its inhabitants, who were alleged to have been of Esaus progeny, were forced to convert to Judaism during the reign of Hyrcanus, mukaddasi, writing around 985 CE, noted that Dura was famous for its vineyards and a type of raisin called Duri. In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Khalil of the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 49 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, vines or fruit trees, in 1834, Duras inhabitants participated in an uprising against the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha, who took over the area between 1831 and 1840. When Robinson visited in 1838, he described Dura as one of the largest villages in the area, and the residence of the Sheikhs of Ibn Omar, two barracks especially have been built in this way. Above the door of one, a block forming the lintel was once ornamented with mouldings, close to the town is a celebrated wely in which lies a colossal sarcophagus, containing, it is said, the body of Noah. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that Dura had a population of 420, in 144 houses, though the population count included men, only. In 1877 Lieutenant Kitchener had some boys publicly flogged in Dura following an incident when stones were thrown at a member of the Palestine Exploration Fund survey party. In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Funds Survey of Western Palestine described Dura as A large and nourishing village on the slope of a hill. This plain is cultivated with corn, to the north of Dura are a few olives, and others on the south

29.
Waqf
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The donated assets may be held by a charitable trust. The person making such dedication is known as waqif, a donor, in Ottoman Turkish law, and later under the British Mandate of Palestine, the waqf was defined as usufruct State land of which the State revenues are assured to pious foundations. In Sunni jurisprudence, waqf, also spelled wakf is synonymous with ḥabs, habs and similar terms are used mainly by Maliki jurists. In Twelver Shiism, ḥabs is a type of waqf. The person making the grant is called al-waqif while the endowed assests are called al-mawquf, the term waqf literally means confinement and prohibition or causing a thing to stop or stand still. Bahaeddin Yediyıldız defines the waqf as a system which comprises three elements, hayrat, akarat and waqf, there is no direct injunction of the Quran regarding Waqf, which is derived from a number of hadiths. One says, Ibn Umar reported, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab got land in Khaybar, so he came to the prophet Muhammad, the Prophet said, If you like, make the property inalienable and give the profit from it to charity. It goes on to say that Umar gave it away as alms and he gave it away for the poor, the relatives, the slaves, the jihad, the travelers and the guests. And it will not be held against him who administers it if he consumes some of its yield in a manner or feeds a friend who does not enrich himself by means of it. In another hadith, Muhammad said, When a man dies, Islamic law puts several legal conditions on the process of establishing a waqf. A waqf is a contract, therefore the founder must be of the capacity to enter into a contract, finally if a person is fatally ill, the waqf is subject to the same restrictions as a will in Islam. The property used to found a waqf must be objects of a valid contract, the object should not be illegal in Islam. Finally these objects should not already be in the public domain, thus, public property cannot be used to establish a waqf. The founder cannot also have pledged the property previously to someone else and these conditions are generally true for contracts in Islam. The property dedicated to waqf is generally immovable, such as estate, all movable goods can also form waqf, according to most Islamic jurists. The Hanafis, however, also allow most movable goods to be dedicated to a waqf with some restrictions, some jurists have argued that even gold and silver can be designated as waqf. The beneficiaries of the waqf can be persons and public utilities, the founder can specify which persons are eligible for benefit. Public utilities such as mosques, schools, bridges, graveyards, modern legislation divides the waqf as charitable causes, in which the beneficiaries are the public or the poor) and family waqf, in which the founder makes the beneficiaries his relatives

30.
Cave of the Patriarchs
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According to tradition that has been associated with the Holy Books Torah, Bible and Quran, the cave and adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot. The site of the Cave of the Patriarchs is located beneath a Saladin-era mosque, the only Jewish matriarch missing is Rachel, who is believed to be buried at Rachels Tomb near Bethlehem. The Arabic name of the complex reflects the prominence given to Abraham, revered by Muslims as a Quranic prophet, outside biblical and Quranic sources there are a number of legends and traditions associated with the cave. In Acts 7,16 of the Christian Bible the cave of the Patriarchs is located in Shechem, according to the Book of Genesis 23, 1–20, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died in Kiryat-arba, the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. Abraham the Hebrew was tending to business elsewhere when she died, at the age of 127 years, and he came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. After a while, he stood up and spoke to the sons of Heth and requested they give him a possession as a burying place, and then in verse 7 he again stood up to speak to them. Abraham then requested that Ephron the Hittite, the son of Zohar, give him the cave of Machpelah, in the end of his field, for as much money as it is worth. After Ephron confirmed that he would give the cave, in verse 11, Abraham further requested that he give him the field for money, Ephron agreed and named a price. The burial of Sarah is the first account of a burial in the Bible, the title deed to the cave was part of the property of Abraham that passed to his son Isaac in Genesis 25, 5–6. Isaac was 180 years old when he died, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. As noted above, Isaac was 60 when they were born, so they were 120 years old here, Jacob died later at the age of 147 years. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, the purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. In the final chapter of Genesis, Joseph had his physicians embalm his father, when Joseph died in the last verse, he was also embalmed. He was buried later in Shechem after the children of Israel came into the promised land. In Acts 7,16, Stephen claims that the cave of the Patriarchs is located in Shechem, herods building, with 6-foot-thick stone walls made from stones that were at least 3 feet tall and sometimes reach a length of 24 feet, did not have a roof. Archæologists are not certain where the entrance to the enclosure was located. Until the era of the Byzantine Empire, the interior of the enclosure remained exposed to the sky, under Byzantine rule, a simple basilica was constructed at the southeastern end and the enclosure was roofed everywhere except at the centre

31.
Ayyubid dynasty
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The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, Saladin had been the vizier of Fatimid Egypt before toppling the Fatimids in 1171. Three years later, he proclaimed himself sultan following the death of his former master, most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of Palestines coastline in the 1190s, by then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by al-Muazzam Turanshah, however, the latter was soon overthrown by the Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt, attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, in 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341 and this period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas in their major cities. The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya tribe, Ayyubs ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were the dominant Kurdish group in the Dvin district, circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turkish generals seized the town from its Kurdish prince. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and his friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhis death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh, together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid, in his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River, as a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in an incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them all the facilities they needed. Ayyub was made commander of Baalbek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangis son, according to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence. In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead a force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt

32.
Damascus
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Damascus is the capital and likely the largest city of Syria, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the ongoing battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as ash-Sham and nicknamed as the City of Jasmine, in addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious centre of the Levant. The city has an population of 1,711,000 as of 2009. Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the centre of a metropolitan area of 2.6 million people. The Barada River flows through Damascus, first settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad, Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the government and all of the government ministries. The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as T-m-ś-q in the 15th century BC, the etymology of the ancient name T-m-ś-q is uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-Semitic. It is attested as Dimašqa in Akkadian, T-ms-ḳw in Egyptian, Dammaśq in Old Aramaic, the Akkadian spelling is found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BC. Later Aramaic spellings of the name include a intrusive resh, perhaps influenced by the root dr. Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus which was imported from originated from the Qumranic Darmeśeq, and Darmsûq in Syriac, meaning a well-watered land. In Arabic, the city is called Dimašqu š-Šāmi, although this is shortened to either Dimašq or aš-Šām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbours. Aš-Šām is an Arabic term for Levant and for Syria, the latter, the Anti-Lebanon mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 10,000 ft. and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean sea, however, in ancient times this was mitigated by the Barada River, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta, irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals, maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada river emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake, because in years of severe drought it does not even exist, the modern city has an area of 105 km2, out of which 77 km2 is urban, while Jabal Qasioun occupies the rest. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, to the south-east, north and north-east it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages, Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighbourhoods originally arose on roads leading out of the city and these new neighbourhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule

33.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco

34.
Mosque
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A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was also constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, however, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles

35.
Apostles
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In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles, were the primary historical disciples of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity. During the life and ministry of Jesus in the 1st century AD, the word disciple is sometimes used interchangeably with apostle, for instance, the Gospel of John makes no distinction between the two terms. In modern usage, prominent missionaries are often called apostles, a practice which stems from the Latin equivalent of apostle, i. e. missio, for example, Saint Patrick was the Apostle of Ireland, and Saint Boniface was the Apostle to the Germans. The commissioning of the Twelve Apostles during the ministry of Jesus is recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, after his resurrection, Jesus sent 11 of them by the Great Commission to spread his teachings to all nations. This event is called the Dispersion of the Apostles. There is also an Eastern Christian tradition derived from the Gospel of Luke of there having been as many as 70 apostles during the time of Jesus ministry. Prominent figures in early Christianity, notably Paul, were called apostles. The period of early Christianity during the lifetimes of the apostles is called the Apostolic Age, during the 1st century AD, the apostles established churches throughout the territories of the Roman Empire and, according to tradition, through the Middle East, Africa, and India. In his writings, the epistles to Christian churches throughout the Levant, Paul did not restrict the term apostle to the Twelve, the restricted usage appears in the Revelation to John. By the 2nd century AD, association with the apostles was esteemed as an evidence of authority, Churches which are believed to have been founded by one of the apostles are known as apostolic sees. Pauls epistles were accepted as scripture, and two of the four gospels were associated with apostles, as were other New Testament works. Various Christian texts, such as the Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions, were attributed to the apostles, bishops traced their lines of succession back to individual apostles, who were said to have dispersed from Jerusalem and established churches across great territories. Christian bishops have traditionally claimed authority deriving, by apostolic succession, early Church Fathers who came to be associated with apostles, such as Pope Clement I with St. Peter, are referred to as the Apostolic Fathers. The Apostles Creed, popular in the West, was said to have composed by the apostles themselves. The word apostle comes from the Greek word ἀπόστολος, formed from the prefix ἀπό- and root στέλλω and originally meaning messenger and it has, however, a stronger sense than the word messenger, and is closer to a delegate. The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament argues that its Christian use translated a Jewish position known in Hebrew as the sheliach and this ecclesiastical meaning of the word was later translated into Latin as missio, the source of the English missionary. In the New Testament, the names of the majority of the apostles are Hebrew names, Mark 6, 7-13 states that Jesus initially sent out these twelve in pairs to towns in Galilee. The text states that their initial instructions were to heal the sick and their carrying of just a staff is sometimes given as the reason for the use by Christian bishops of a staff of office in those denominations that believe they maintain an apostolic succession

36.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe

37.
Levant
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The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French and it derives from the Italian Levante, meaning rising, implying the rising of the sun in the east. As such, it is equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq. Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine, in 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire. The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and this is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine. Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon, today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It does not include Anatolia, the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper, the Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included. The Levant has been described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa, the populations of the Levant share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. They are often referred to as Levantines, the term Levant, which appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It is borrowed from the French levant rising, referring to the rising of the sun in the east, the phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning lift, raise. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή, in Germanic Morgenland, in Italian, in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, most notably, Orient and its Latin source oriens meaning east, is literally rising, deriving from Latin orior rise. The notion of the Levant has undergone a process of historical evolution in usage, meaning. While the term Levantine originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it came to refer to regional native. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, at this time, the Far East was known as the Upper Levant. In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, in 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon was called the Levant states, today, Levant is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a wider, yet relevant, archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant. Two academic journals were launched, Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review

38.
Petra
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Petra, originally known to the Nabataeans as Raqmu, is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan. The city is famous for its architecture and water conduit system. Another name for Petra is the Rose City due to the color of the out of which it is carved. Established possibly as early as 312 BC as the city of the Arab Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan. The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs who took advantage of Petras proximity to trade routes to establish it as a major trading hub. The Nabataeans are also known for their ability in constructing efficient water-collecting methods in the barren deserts. Petra lies on the slope of Jebel al-Madhbah in a basin among the mountains form the eastern flank of Arabah. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, the site remained unknown to the western world until 1812, when it was introduced by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was described as a rose-red city half as old as time in a Newdigate Prize-winning poem by John William Burgon, UNESCO has described it as one of the most precious cultural properties of mans cultural heritage. Petra was named amongst the New7Wonders of the World in 2007 and was chosen by the Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 28 Places to See Before You Die. Pliny the Elder and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Nabataeans, excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The area is visited by flash floods, and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and these innovations stored water for prolonged periods of drought and enabled the city to prosper from its sale. Another approach was possibly from the plateau to the north. Today, most modern visitors approach the site from the east, at the end of the narrow gorge stands Petras most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh, hewn into the sandstone cliff. A little farther from the Treasury, at the foot of the mountain called en-Nejr, is a massive theatre, at the point where the valley opens out into the plain, the site of the city is revealed with striking effect. The amphitheatre has been cut into the hillside and into several of the tombs during its construction, rectangular gaps in the seating are still visible. Almost enclosing it on three sides are rose-colored mountain walls, divided into groups by deep fissures and lined with knobs cut from the rock in the form of towers. By 2010 BC, some of the earliest recorded farmers had settled in Beidha, Petra is listed in Egyptian campaign accounts and the Amarna letters as Pel, Sela or Seir

39.
Transjordan (region)
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Transjordan, the East Bank, or the Transjordanian Highlands, is the part of the Southern Levant east of the Jordan River, mostly contained in present-day Jordan. The region, known as Transjordan, was controlled by numerous powers throughout history, during the early modern era, the region of Transjordan was included under jurisdiction of Ottoman Syrian provinces. During World War I, Transjordan region was taken by the British, central government was established in Transjordan in 1921 and in 1922 the region became known as the Emirate of Transjordan, receiving full autonomy in 1929. In 1946, the Emirate achieved independence from the British and in 1952 the country changed its name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the prefix trans- is Latin and means across or beyond, and so Transjordan refers to the land on the other side of the Jordan River. The equivalent term for the west side is the Cisjordan - literally, the Tanakhs Hebrew, בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן מִזְרַח הַשָּׁמֶשׁ‎, translit. Beyond the Jordan towards the sunrise‎, is translated in the Septuagint to Ancient Greek, πέραν τοῦ Ιορδάνου, péran toú Jordánou, beyond the Jordan, which was then translated to Latin, trans Iordanen, lit. Beyond the Jordan in the Vulgate Bible, however some authors give the Hebrew, עבר הירדן‎, translit. Beyond the Jordan‎, as the basis for Transjordan, which is also the modern Hebrew usage, whereas the term East as in towards the sunrise is used in Arabic, شرق الأردن‎, translit. The Shasu were Semitic-speaking cattle nomads in the Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, some scholars link the Israelites and the worship of a deity named Yahweh with the Shasu. The Egyptian geographical term Retjenu, is identified as an area covering Sinai and Canaan south of Lebanon, with the regions of Amurru. And as such, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs in the early Late Bronze Age, when Canaanite confederacies centered on Megiddo and Kadesh, came under the control of the Egyptian Empire. However, the control was sporadic, and not strong enough to prevent frequent local rebellions. The Book of Numbers tells how the tribes of Reuben and Gad came to Moses to ask if they could settle in the Transjordan. Moses is dubious, but the two promise to join in the conquest of the land, and so Moses grants them this region to live in. The half tribe of Manasseh are not mentioned until verse 33, David Jobling suggests that this is because Manasseh settled in land which previously belonged to Og, north of the Jabbok, while Reuben and Gad settled Sihons land, which lay south of the Jabbok. Since Ogs territory was not on the route to Canaan, it was more part of the Promised Land. In the Book of Joshua, Joshua affirms Moses decision, in Joshua 22, the Transjordanian tribes return, and build a massive altar by the Jordan. In response to this, the Transjordanian tribes say that the altar is not for offerings, the western tribes are satisfied, and return home

40.
Judea
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Judea or Judæa is the ancient Hebrew and Israelite biblical, the exonymic Roman/English, and the modern-day name of the mountainous southern part of Canaan-Israel. As a consequence of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE the region was renamed and merged with Roman Syria to form Syria Palaestina by the victorious Roman Emperor Hadrian, a large part of Judea was included in Jordanian West Bank between 1948 and 1967. The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name Judah, nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c.733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah. Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, in 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius, described Nazara as a village in Judea. Judea was the used by English-speakers until the Jordanian occupation of the area in 1948. Jordan called the area ad-difa’a al-gharbiya, yehuda is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967. The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote, In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath and this is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia, however, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the middle, on which account some have, with sagacity enough. This country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias and its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered a desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m in the south at Mount Hebron,30 km southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m below sea level in the east of the region. The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle, major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron. Geographers divide Judea into several regions, the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, the hills are distinct for their anticline structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible records agriculture, animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops as summer approaches, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside, regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, the Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II

41.
Palestine Exploration Fund
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The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865 and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study of the Levant region, today now known as Palestine. Consequently, it had a relationship with Corps of Royal Engineers. The beginnings of the Palestine Exploration Fund are rooted in a society founded by British Consul James Finn. Many photographs of Palestine have survived from this period, on 22 June 1865, a group of Biblical archaeologists and clergymen financed the fund, with initial funding of £300. The most notable of the founders were Arthur P. Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, and George Grove and its founders established the fund for the purpose of investigating the Archaeology, Geography, manners, customs and culture, Geology and Natural History of the Holy Land. It is interesting to note that the General Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund recognized a connection with the earlier Society. The preliminary meeting of the Society of the Palestine Exploration Fund took place in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey, William Thomson, the Archbishop of York, read out the original prospectus at the first organisational meeting, ur object is strictly an inductive inquiry. No country should be of so much interest to us as that in which the documents of our Faith were written, at the same time no country more urgently requires illustration. Even to a traveller in the Holy Land the Bible becomes, in its form, and therefore to some extent in its substance. Much would be gained by. bringing to light the remains of so many races and generations which must lie concealed under the accumulation of rubbish and ruins on which those villages stand. The PEF conducted many early excavations of biblical and post biblical sites around the Levant, as well as studies involving natural history, anthropology, history, in 1867, Charles Warren led PEFs biggest expedition. Warren and his team improved the topography of Jerusalem and discovered the ancient water systems that lay beneath the city of Jerusalem, the water system was later named Warrens Shaft, after Charles Warren, due to the discovery. Scattered over the world, a people without a country and it was one of the earliest usages by a prominent politician of a phrase which was to become widely used by advocates of Jewish settlement in Palestine. In 1878, the Treasurers statement listed over 130 local associations in the United Kingdom, there were also branches in Canada and Australia as well as Gaza City and Jerusalem. Expenditure in 1877 amounted to £2,959 14s 11d, regarding the latter, great emphasis was placed upon the nomenclature Holy Land, so the notion of religion could never have been far away. Also stress was laid upon the fact that The Society numbers among its supporters Christians, originally the survey was led by a Captain Stewart but he was forced home due to ill health. He was replaced by Major Wilson with Lieutenant Conder, following the death of Tyrwhitt Drake from malaria Lieutenant Kitchener joined the group